From ancient maps to big data

Mapping Knowledge|Exhibition design

After a complete renovation the Mundaneum in Mons kicked off with the exhibition 'Mapping Knowledge, Understanding the world through data'. We designed labels, wall texts and a general visual to guide visitors through this exciting story. The biggest challenge was to design ‘a timeline of knowledge’ to empower the idea that the amount of information we generate and archive is exponentially increasing. The timeline highlights the most important knowledge breakthroughs and technological inventions which led to other important insights. The notable length of the timeline –twelve meters!– was aligned with the original wooden drawers containing the more than twelve millions ‘index cards’ that lie at the heart of the Mundaneum, a global information centre set up by Paul Otlet and Henri Lafontaine in 1910.

We Love Type

Gesamtwerk

Generositeit|Book design

In October 2011 Marc Verminck, philosopher at LUCA School of Arts in Brussels, asked Johan to join him in an ambitious project: the editing and visual presentation of essays and artworks of 17 different contributors – most of them philosophers, writers or artists – in one book. A book about generosity, in all its forms, meanings and complexity. In words and images. The book would be designed by eleven graphic design students, supervised and co-designed by Johan.
To assure visual coherence, a set of commonly used design attributes such as page format, grid, typesetting, look and feel… that at the same time allows for the visually expression of the particularity of the individual contributions was designed by the collective.
Out of the students’ cover design proposals, Tim Caenepeel’s idea was selected and Johan (re)worked and fine-tuned it. The diagonal structure metaphorically represents the diffuse act of giving and taking, but also reflects – in color codes for the authors and quantity of frames expressing the number of pages of each contribution. The proposals that ‘didn’t make it’ were nevertheless included in the endpages of the book, one of Marc’s generous ideas, honouring the effort more than the result.
It took a year and a half and a lot of effort to produce this book. In April 2013, during his speech at the book-presentation, Marc announced it to be his last book. Unfortunately this turned out to be true. A year and a half later, on December 10th, 2014, Marc passed away.

Add your extra

Wishing well|Greeting card

Acclaimed colleague and perfect collaborator Peter De Roy stumbled upon some old print-stock. In an age of austerity, this ‘extra’ is a most curious sign to come across. We wondered: what does it mean to be generous in lean times? Too tired to sketch out possible answers, we decided to put our wonderment out there by stirring up a totally random magical charm. We elaborated on the notion of ‘extra’ in pairing used numbers on yesterday’s winners and losers with words from an obsolete dictionary. We exposed this mix to the power of wood & lead type and sent it out.

Meer dan object|Book design

The publication sketches the moments — big and small — of the trajectory of five pilot projects on commissioned art in the public space in Flanders. It is a collection of essays, interviews, timelines, images and sketches and schemes which combined plot the particular routes commissioners and artists set out on.

Thoughts on Designing Information|Book design

This book reflects on the continuously evolving field of information design, with special interest in the education of information designers. The core of it consists of interviews with sixteen renowned international designers. Combining these dialogues with illustrations of their work required a well considered spread design. At the beginning and the end of the book two visual essays, encapsulate the interviews. The cover of the book reflects the content and the structure of the book straightaway.